TUCSON, Ariz. -- It's been obvious throughout camp the Colorado Rockies wanted to name Chin-hui Tsao their closer going into 2005. He's performed well enough to warrant the opportunity, giving up one earned run and striking out five in five innings.
But the decision came down to Tsao having the right answer. Much like a beauty contest, on Thursday Tsao faced the judges.

For 45 minutes, he sat with manager Clint Hurdle, pitching coach Bob Apodaca, general manager Dan O'Dowd, special front office assistant and pitching guru Marcel Lachemann, and Pacific Rim liaison Ming Harber (just to make sure nothing was lost in the language differences between English and the Mandarin Chinese that Tsao spoke in his native Taiwan).

They simply wanted to know why Tsao wanted the job. They weren't looking for anything that involved world peace.

"He said he wanted to make a difference," Apodaca said. "He understood the ninth inning, the finality of it. He felt he wanted to be that guy, the pitcher that makes the difference."

Tsao, 23, topped Colorado's prospect list as a starter for the last few years but closed at the end of last season. He also closed for Taiwan in last summer's Olympics. Tsao was 1-for-2 in save opportunities in 2004 for the Rockies. He went 3-3 with a 6.02 ERA in nine games, eight starts, in 2003 for Colorado. He also was 29-20 with a 2.75 ERA in 66 minor league games, all starts.

Hurdle announced the decision on Friday, but noticeably lacking was the conviction the Rockies espoused when naming Shawn Chacon -- another touted starter -- to the closer job last season. That's because this is not a heck-or-high-water decision. Tsao is the closer "to start the season," Hurdle emphasized.

"What we've talked about is we've learned a lot from last year's situation with Shawn on things we can improve, things we can ask of the player to maybe make it easier," Hurdle said. "There was a learning experience for everybody involved. To not have learned something from it, it would have been a wasted situation."

Tsao will be moved to the ninth inning for his final six spring appearances, starting Saturday against Oakland. But left-hander Brian Fuentes and right-handers Scott Dohmann, Ryan Speier and Eddie Gaillard already have pitched ninth innings in Spring Training.

Depending on how the bullpen shakes out -- beyond saying it would take an injury to keep Fuentes off the team, Hurdle would not commit to the others even making the team -- the others could close when Tsao has pitched on consecutive days or move into the role if Tsao struggles.

But Hurdle believes Tsao has the ability to handle the role, and the Rockies will give him a game plan that Chacon did not have.

"He's established the fastball," Hurdle said. "We know the velocity is there. He's got to find a way to maintain it from first pitch to last pitch of the inning -- the top-end velocity, not work into his velocity, which he has had a history of doing. We told him how important it is to put away the first hitter, being able to throw a secondary pitch the first pitch of an at-bat or behind in the count.

"These are things he can incorporate as we go into the final six games, which probably we might have been able to break down better for 'Chac' or had a little better plan set up."

曹錦輝果然是可以的，現在已經確定他當終結者了，但還是要看他後續的表現，假如真的不適任，或許還會換人，不過總歸一句，台灣的投手果然夠格。

酷喔~ 你貼的英文我真的看不懂 但是看到你的心得就了解

還要看後面六場比賽再決定吧...大串的英文看起來好累>.<"

呵呵 我看著一大串英文也是很累，所以我都挑對話的部分來讀，因為對話的內容比較容易懂